Question about Martial Artist building

[Taylan]

Question about Martial Artist building

Hi eweryone, it's my first post to this forum:
I decided to build a kicker MA Sin using claw/shield and i wanted to ask if the skills I'm gonna use are well choosed:
Slvl 20 Tiger S. & Slvl 20 DTail as base attack
Slvl 20 Pheonix S. for PI's
Slvl 8 Burst of Speed and Slvl 11 Shadow Master
if i add the pre. req.'s it's making 91 skill pts. all pts. after that are going to Burst of Speed and/or Shadow Master.
what do you think? Is it OK?

 

[stephan]

Is there any reason why you go for level 8 BoS? Usually, 1 point with +skills is good enough.

Consider to put your leftover points in a synergy for PS, depending on which charge you want to use (probably FoF).

For the rest it sounds good. Of course, there is the thing that you didn't mention Death Sentry. It is the best offensive skill the Assassin has, but perhaps you are choosing not to use it for some reason?

 

[Hot Sauce]

Well, since fire damage is already available via Dtail, wouln't CoT be the better synergy choice?

 

[stephan]

PS is a phys immune solution. If you kick a physical immune with Dtail, the resulting fire damage will be 0 because it is calculated from the actual physical damage you do with the kick (0 against phys immunes).

PS1 is the easier one to time (IMO) and the damage is quite good.

 

[PrkChopXpress]

The other PI solution you might want to consider is maxing Venom.

 

[oakienko]

you're going to have problems with PI, PS unsynergized can't help you much.
might i suggest the 20 points in Dtail to 1 and add 19 to either CoF or CoT.

 

[stephan]

No. DTail must be maxed. If you want to take points away, get them from SM and BoS.

 

[Taylan]

I read in a guide that 8 pts is the breakout point for BoS but didn't think about the +skills...
Well, than i'm gonna reduce 7 pts from BoS and 10 from SM and MAX out FoF or CoT (?). I think CoT is better because of more avarage dam and stunning effect.

 

[PrkChopXpress]

I read in a guide that 8 pts is the breakout point for BoS but didn't think about the +skills...
Well, than i'm gonna reduce 7 pts from BoS and 10 from SM and MAX out FoF or CoT (?). I think CoT is better because of more avarage dam and stunning effect.

Like stephan said, it'll probably be easier (and more effective) to just rain meteors, which means you'd want to max FoF. IIRC, the ground fire dmg stacks, so while each individual 2-charge PS release will do more dmg that each individual 1-charge PS release, over time you'll release 1-charge more often and the dmg is cumulative. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

[stephan]

I read in a guide that 8 pts is the breakout point for BoS but didn't think about the +skills...

This doesn't make much sense. It depends on what weapon you are using and how much IAS you have on gear.

Well, than i'm gonna reduce 7 pts from BoS and 10 from SM and MAX out FoF or CoT (?). I think CoT is better because of more avarage dam and stunning effect.

You can release Meteors faster and, indeed, the ground damage stacks. With the long duration of the fire, you can make yourself a nice BBQ. :smiley:

 

[Taylan]

OK, now i got the whole thing. Thank's for all your help.

 

[oakienko]

Like stephan said, it'll probably be easier (and more effective) to just rain meteors, which means you'd want to max FoF. IIRC, the ground fire dmg stacks, so while each individual 2-charge PS release will do more dmg that each individual 1-charge PS release, over time you'll release 1-charge more often and the dmg is cumulative. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

also keep in mind that dtail does aoe knockback... if you're going to combine dtail with ps1, at least use your merc or shadow and kick the monsters at them.

 

[Taylan]

By the way, i read in a guide that the Act 2 Merc is very good, especially combat. Does that mean he's better than the Act 3 or 5 one? I think the Act 5 Merc is MUCH better.

 

[stephan]

Act 2 mercs are useful for their auras, but the advice for a combat merc seems a bit off, since they have the least helpful auras.

An act 5 merc does nothing really better than an act 2 merc and doesn't have an aura.

 

[Taylan]

I read the merc stats and saw that the act 2 merc is surprisingly better than the act 5 one in many ways:
The life, strength and resistances of the barb are better than the act 2 merc, but the dex, def, AR and damage of the act 2 merc is better than the barb's. if we add the aura bonus, the act 2 merc seems to be better. what do you think?

 

[Zauzich]

The aura isn't to make the A2 merc itself better than the A5 merc. The aura is to make you and your shadow better.

You could equip any merc with gear that gives auras, though, and I understand there is a 2 aura limit on mercs so depending on how much you have to invest in merc gear you could still get a full compliment of auras with any merc. Not all A2 auras are available on gear, though.